


as long as life, with no decline or end

by fensandmarshes



Category: Mo Dao Zu Shi - Moxiang Tongxiu, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Battle Couple, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Podfic Welcome, badasses being badass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:13:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24451882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fensandmarshes/pseuds/fensandmarshes
Summary: Song Zichen doesn’t dart Xingchen a glance. Doesn’t need to. “You’re slow today,” he says, because it’s a more acceptable comment thanone of your strikes was like poetry in motion, like lightning upon a storm-struck hill; I know you don’t like my compliments but it is the greatest honour of my life to fight beside you. “There was a blow you could have dodged. It was inefficient to parry it.”or: songxiao fluff and banter, but like, in the middle of a battle
Relationships: Sòng Lán | Sòng Zǐchēn/Xiǎo Xīngchén
Comments: 27
Kudos: 99





	as long as life, with no decline or end

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday to [rin!!!](bowen-jie.tumblr.com) i love you and i’m sorry this is late :( but i wrote you some Baby’s First Songxiao! literally no clue what i’m doing but hey that’s half the fun.  
> anyway, sure am glad xiao xingchen just fuckin stabbed xue yang when he had the chance and now songxiao are alive and roaming the world, with yi city as just another vaguely traumatic memory they can avoid and forget easily enough and add to the list of accomplishments the cultivation world can praise them for! the whole eyes debacle still happened though. because in this house we don’t stan disability erasure.  
> straight-up ripped both the title and one of song lan’s lines from [, which i found by searching their blog for “poem” because i KNEW they’d have something - this is not the appropriate time or place to sing their praises, but! holy fuck! everyone PLEASE check out their blog, oh my god. ONE MORE THING and then i promise i'll shut up - thank you so much ](https://hunxi-guilai.tumblr.com/post/618875871990792193/hey-there-hoping-to-get-your-input-on-this-ive)

“Are you _sure_ this was wise?” Xingchen hisses. (Song Zichen doesn’t have to look around to find him; Xingchen’s presence is like a brand in the corner of his vision, drawing his attention as nothing else can.) He takes another step and his back bumps against Song Zichen’s. “If we had just taken that nice innkeeper’s advice -”

“She was _lying_ to us, Xingchen,” Song Zichen snarks, and ducks under a strike out of instinct - it clashes with Xingchen’s Shuanghua in a shower of cold white sparks. “Just because _you_ couldn’t see it -”

Xingchen snorts, and Song Zichen cuts himself off, catching the joke too late. “My apologies for not _seeing_ it,” Xingchen murmurs. Song Zichen can almost hear the stupid, gentle grin he _must_ be making, colouring his voice with an insufferably teasing tone. He should … not be thinking about Xingchen’s smile right now. He darts forwards for a moment, parting with the stability of Xingchen’s back at his own to draw Fuxue smoothly through a fierce beast’s chest, preempting its attack, before whirling to block another beast’s fist with the flat of Fuxue’s blade; Xingchen darts through Song Zichen’s periphery, almost effortless in his movement, and Song Zichen forcefully represses the swell in his chest. Now is not the time.

The two of them collide again, back-to-back, in the centre of a clump of fierce beasts. Song Zichen doesn’t dart Xingchen a glance. Doesn’t need to. “You’re slow today,” he says, because it’s a more acceptable comment than _one of your strikes was like poetry in motion, like lightning upon a storm-struck hill; I know you don’t like my compliments but it is the greatest honour of my life to fight beside you_. “There was a blow you could have dodged. It was inefficient to parry it.” 

“How perceptive of you,” Xingchen returns through another of those slow sweet smiles; Song Zichen doesn’t need to see it to know the way Xingchen is ducking his head, bashful even in the midst of _open combat_. He raises Shuanghua, a reflex, and dispatches another beast. “I’m glad I have a master of the sword here, to provide instruction to this unworthy, unskilled disciple -”

“Shut up,” Song Zichen mutters, in a manner unbecoming of someone of his … not status, perhaps, but reputation. 

Xingchen laughs (melodious, ethereal). (Sometimes Song Zichen wonders who he would be, if this child of the mountain hadn’t decided the world was worth it; who, _what_ would he be, without Xiao Xingchen?) “How could you tell the innkeeper was lying?”

Song Zichen grasps for the memory, and extends Fuxue to block an overhand strike to Xingchen’s head; the parry leaves him overbalanced, relying overmuch on Xingchen’s shoulder at his back to stay upright, and Xingchen is forced to rotate the two of them in place, maintaining his own balance only by virtue of clever footwork. “Sorry,” Song Zichen mutters. “I was distracted. I suppose you couldn’t see the way she smiled.”

“No,” Xingchen allows, lenient. “It’s okay - you’re getting used to my … to this. I understand you forget sometimes.”

“I’m still sorry. Your left,” Song Zichen adds, offhand. Xingchen blocks the blow without turning to it. “I should do better.”

“How many fierce beasts are left?” 

Song Zichen cranes his neck. “More than I can count from here.”

“Is there higher ground nearby?”

“A ridge, twenty metres to your right. But it’s overrun.”

“Do you blame yourself for what happened to me?”

Song Zichen splutters. “ _What_?”

“You heard me,” Xingchen says smoothly, and nudges an elbow towards Song Zichen’s ribs, which is not something he should do in the midst of a literal battle, but which soothes Song Zichen immensely. “Do you?”

“Of _course_. It was my fault and my burden.”

“It was my choice. Is there another option, or shall we take the ridge?”

“You can’t just -”

“ _Now_ , Zichen,” Xingchen interrupts, and the two of them spread their arms in unison, propelling themselves towards the ridge; Song Zichen’s spiritual energy greets Xingchen’s like an old friend. They were cultivation partners, before Baixue Temple happened. Their golden cores are becoming reacquainted, now, and Song Zichen is that much stronger for it - fighting, travelling, _being_ without Xingchen was like doing the same without Fuxue at his side. Song Zichen alights on the ridge with sword bared and singing, using the momentum of his arrival to power Fuxue’s sweeping arc; Xingchen stumbles for a moment when his feet find the ground. Song Zichen moves to help him but does not have to. In Xingchen’s grasp, his Shuanghua is a living being that draws him through an eclectic mix of sword forms, and Song Zichen thinks only he would notice Xingchen’s momentary falter - being familiar as he is with Xingchen’s every move.

“Are you okay?” he asks anyway.

“You _know_ I am.” Song Zichen notices with dismay the touch of irritation to Xingchen’s tone; Xingchen _moves_ , Shuanghua thrumming, and catches a strike headed for Song Zichen’s shoulder. (Song Zichen didn’t notice it, distracted by watching Xingchen. He supposes it’s just another life he owes Xiao Xingchen, and the two of them have long since stopped keeping track of the debts between them.) “I can hear you doubting me.”

Song Zichen falters again, midway through a thrust, tilting his head. “No you can’t. Can you?”

Xingchen snorts, the expression childish and gleeful; it’s the kind of open, proud departure from serenity that people don’t expect from the Bright Moon and Gentle Breeze, Song Zichen thinks fiercely. But Song Zichen cares nothing for the Bright Moon and Gentle Breeze - it is Xiao Xingchen he loves. (Has always loved.) “No, I can’t,” Xingchen admits. “But it was very funny.”

“No one would expect this kind of conduct from a man of your widely-honoured name,” Song Zichen grumbles, and tries to ignore the way this knowledge thrills possessively in his chest. “So blatantly disrespectful.”

“But you love me,” Xingchen teases, ducking under a fierce beast’s strike and transitioning smoothly into an attack. 

Song Zichen sighs, long and loud, and makes sure that Xingchen can hear it.

“You _do_.”

Song Zichen huffs and makes to turn away, before remembering that the thick of a battle is not the best place to take such idle movement. He just barely avoids another fierce beast’s teeth. “ _Xiao Xingchen_ ,” he snaps. “You are -”

Another beast growls, effectively cutting Song Zichen off. Its timing is particularly irritating. 

Xingchen’s movements are effortlessly perfect, and Song Zichen is careful not to pause in his own fighting as he marvels; he has done that one too many times. There’s no strain to his strength, even as he flickers between targets almost faster than Song Zichen’s trained gaze can follow. It is easier to perceive him, almost, if Song Zichen closes his own eyes. Their cores sing to each other.

“I want to marry you,” he says, offhandedly. There is no poetry to his words. (They do not need it.) It is a statement of unremarkable fact, as unambiguous as the whirl of Fuxue in his hands or the fierce beast’s heart he drives it through.

Xiao Xingchen turns, and his smile is radiant. “Okay.”

Song Zichen greets Xingchen’s grin with a tentative smile of his own. “I want for us both to know each other -”

“Not _now_ ,” Xingchen frowns, and lashes out again with Shuanghua. “For heaven’s sake, Zichen. You can recite me your favourite poetry once we’re finished here.”

“I will,” Song Zichen murmurs, and turns to end the battle. 

He stands with the man he loves at his side.


End file.
